


Dinner for Two

by Kuuttituutti



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Attempted Murder, Death, Emotional Hurt, Guilt, Heavy Angst, Kinda, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Post-Canon, Self-Hatred, Suicidal Thoughts, Taako is a jerk, but i don't anyone to read something that even mentions something they don't want to read about, self harming thoughts, the major character death is mainly for the fact that Magnus is dead, the tags might be a bit overreacting, well this is like that, what is an opposite to fix it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 19:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13665882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuuttituutti/pseuds/Kuuttituutti
Summary: It isn't easy to forgive someone that has ruined your life. It's even harder when someone tries to force you to forgive someone.Lup tries to fix Taako's and Lucretia's relationship by forcing them to talk it out. It does not end well.





	Dinner for Two

**Author's Note:**

> If you need me to tag this with something please comment!  
> Kind of an continuation of this fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12984957  
> I hope this isn't too OOC, but I'm afraid this is a bit.   
> This is a bit heavier angst than what I usually write, and I'm so sorry.

”Thank you for inviting us. It’s been a while since we have had a double date” Kravitz said as he took off his jacket.   
”And we would not say no to free food” Taako laughed. Lup chuckled and looked at Kravitz a bit nervous. When the handsome man noticed the elf’s stare he simply nodded. Lup sighed of relief. Their plan was working.   
”I can take your jacket” Barry offered and took Taako’s purple jacket. Barry was wearing his finest jeans and a plain white shirt. When they have first had one of these double-date dinners, Barry’s plain style had always made Kravitz feel a bit overdressed, but his fine tux was no match to the twins fine garments. Lup was wearing a beautiful red dress and Taako’s black skirt was just as stylish.   
”So what’s for dinner?” Taako asked exited, smelling the air.  
”You’ll see. Kravitz can you…help in the kitchen?” Lup asked winking his eye, hoping that Taako wasn’t looking.   
”Of course Lup” Kravitz answered and followed Lup to their big kitchen, leaving Barry and Taako laughing in the living room. 

”And you are sure he does not know?” Lup ensured, flipping the fish on the pan.   
”Yes. Are you sure this is the right thing to do? Like, going behind his back like this” Kravitz asked nervously, chopping the potatoes next to Lup. He was not very keen on lying to Taako.   
”You saw him at the Candlenight’s party. If they don’t talk this out now, it’s just going to get harder for them. And I don’t want to have to choose between my best friend and my brother. Also like, you’ve seen the list. She has like a month or two. I don’t want her to die in guilt”, Lup sighed. ”It’s worth a try.”  
”Okay, I understand. But if Taako asks something, I’m going to put the full blame on you” Kravitz snapped. Lup could see that the man was really tensed up.   
”Don’t worry, I’ll handle this. You don’t have to take any part in this if you don’t want to. You can like excuse yourself to the bathroom if you want to”, Lup reassured. Kravitz handed the potatoes to her and started to carry the plates to the table.   
”Okay”, he whispered. ” I didn’t have any part in this”.

”…and then, when the audience finally got to taste Ren’s soup, their faces just lit up. I’m so proud of her, she has improved so much” Taako told happily. Lup could really hear in his voice that Taako was truly proud of his student. Barry kept the conversation going, and Lup could let her mind wonder. Kravitz’s words from earlier where now echoing through her head. Maybe this was not the right thing to do. No, both of them needed this. She needed this and Barry too. She should be here soon.

A knock. Barry left the table to get to the door. Kravitz excused himself. Lup braced herself.  
” Taako, I didn’t invite you here just to hang out. I actually have something I think you should do. And please I beg you, when Barry comes back, please keep calm” Lup said, twirling her glass of beer.  
” Oh, so what do you want me to do?” Taako asked and reached for another slice of bread.   
”I want you to talk to someone. Someone…important. And I think if you talk with them, you’ll both feel better in the end” Lup sighed. In the corner of her eye she saw Lucretia.   
”Wow that’s a really hard task. Wow this going to be so hard, I wonder how I’m going to survive” Taako chukcled. But as Lucretia stepped in to the room, Taako froze. Barry walked past her and sat down, next to Lup.   
” Sit down please” Lup instructed Lucretia. Lucretia sat carefully to the chair opposite to Taako, avoiding Taako’s gaze. The old woman looked fragile and was clearly very nervous. 

” Lup, what is she doing here?” Taako hissed. His ears were twitching and fingers were tapping on the edge of the table.   
” She is the one I want you to talk with” Lup said.   
” Fuck no” Taako laughed and tried to stood up. Lup however snapped her fingers and suddenly cuff-like restrains appeared around Taako’s arms and bound him to the chair. Same kind of restrains also appeared on Lucretia's hands.   
” Lup is this really necessary?” Lucretia asked a bit confused.  
”Why the fuck do you know this spell?” Taako wondered, trying to free himself.  
”You don’t know what Barry is into” Lup snapped. Taako could see Barry blushing and staring deeply in to his coffee cup, but it was the last of his worries. For now he just concentrated to stare at Lup.  
”Let. Me. Go” Taako said and tried to fight against the restrains. Lup took a deep breath.  
”Now you two are going to talk. Me and Barry are going to eat dessert and you two can join us when you have made up. Okay?” Lup explained and cast another spell. Taako’s curses fell to deaf ears as the deep blue bubble started to form around Lucretia and Taako. And so, their view of the outside world was cut of. All they could see was the other person sitting opposite to them. There was no way for Lucretia to escape Taako’s angered gaze now. 

”I’m going to kill her when we get out” Taako hissed and tried to reach for his wineglass. With some effort, he finally got his fingers around the base of the glass and raised the it to his lips. After a big gulp he spoke again, staring straight in to Lucretia’s eyes.   
”So did you two make up like a safeword or something. Some secret hand signal or something just as stupid? Anyway, please do the thing and just let fucking enjoy my night. It’s not like you already ruined my life or anything” Taako muttered the last words, making sure that Lucretia would still hear them.   
”Taako, I’m just as confused as you, I…” Lucretia tried to say but was cut off by Taako yelling:   
”Hey fuckers I know you three can hear us. Kravitz! Barry! Let me fucking out!”. Taako tried to bang on the bubble, but didn’t seem to make any damage to it.   
”Taako, could we just talk?” Lucretia whispered. Taako looked at her a bit amused.   
”What is there to talk about?” he said in a sarcastic laugh. Lucretia gulped, and tried her best to not to show her shaking hands.  
”How are things going?” Lucretia asked, trying to keep her voice steady. Taako almost spat out his wine laughing.   
”Well, thank you for asking Lucretia. My life has been going just great. I have a loving husband, my student is the brightest star in the cooking business at the moment. Merle is still kicking around and Angus is doing great. I have a really lovely sister, who seems to really like to annoy me with her little tricks, like locking me up in some sort of conversation bubble, which I know the others can observe us while we are suppose to talk. Ain’t that right Lup!?” the elf answered cheerfully, banging his right hand on the bubble again. Lucretia smiled weakly. Taako concentrated on levitating a piece of bread to himself before he continued:  
”You know, my life has actually been going pretty great. Until like I guess five minutes ago”. Lucretia sighed and dropped her gaze back to her own hands, as she felt the elf looking at her again.   
”I’m glad to hear that you are doing well” Lucretia said.   
”Yeah yeah I don’t care. Hey Lup! Can you free us now? We had a conversation. Isn’t this what you wanted!” Taako yelled again, making Lucretia flinch. 

There was no answer. There was no signal, anything that let them know that anyone had even heard them. For all that Lucretia knew, they could even be in a another dimension. She was not familiar with Lup’s spell. Seconds turned to minutes, as the two just stayed quiet. Lucretia didn’t know what to say. She wanted out of the situation just as much as Taako did. But she knew that Lup was stubborn, and wouldn’t let them out. They had to talk. That was the only way to get out of this. She took a deep breath and finally asked the question that had burned her mind for so long, even though she already knew the answer. But she needed to hear Taako say it.  
”Taako, why do you hate me?”  
Taako ate the piece of bread, acting like he had not heard the old woman’s question.   
”I heard what you and Lup talked at the Candlenight’s party. You…just say it straight to my face please” Lucretia hoped, trying not to concentrate how her voice was starting to crack. Taako leaned his back to the chair and just stared at Lucretia. The woman wanted to look away from those judging eyes, but she knew that she shouldn’t.   
”Do you want the short list or the long?” Taako calmly asked, tearing the bread in his hands.  
”Just…say something, please” Lucretia quivered, feeling a small burn in her eyes. Arrogantly, the elf stretched his fingers as much as the restrains would allow him.   
”Okay. I’ll give you a list!” Taako yawned. Lucretia felt a small smile creeping on her lips, even if her eyes were already starting to fill with tears. 

”If you want the short list, you ruined my life. That’s it. But if you really want to remind me of every shitty thing you have ever done, fine, that’s okay too!” Taako grinned.   
”Okay” Lucretia whispered, not looking away. The person she had once called brother now only looked at her like she was the worst person on all the planes. And in Lucretia’s mind, he was not really that wrong.   
”There was so fucking many options to work around the relics! Yes it might have been painful to see that people were stupid enough to fight over them, but as you probably saw, the fact that you made as forgot did not help at all. People were still stupid. Hundreds of people died!” Taako started. He took a shaky breath before he continued.   
”You took our lives from us. Yeah, you might have left a couple of memories to us, but like, it’s not like they were really that good. And talking about that, how much did you even leave for Davenport? At least Magnus and Merle got to keep couple of childhood memories, you left Davenport just knowing his fucking name. There must have been something that you could have left him with. You used him like a fucking servant, he was your captain for crying out loud. You must have been really proud of yourself ”, Taako grinned and took a long sip of wine.   
”I was trying to protect him. I just could not find any memories to leave him with, and he would not have survived alone and…” Lucretia said, trying to keep herself steady, failing miserably.   
”You would not had that problem in the first place if you were smart enough to actually think of a better way than taking our memories. And hey, talking about taking lives away, how many of your little Bureau’s members ended up dead and erased because you tried to be the hero. You wanted to be the selfless hero, who would save the whole world alone. I thought you would have at least some mind left to remember that even when there were seven of us, we still could not save those worlds. We tried. We tried a fucking hundreds of times. And we failed. You failed. You were selfish, and I might not a lot about heroes, but you are the farthest thing from it!” Taako almost laughed, even though Lucretia noticed that his ears were starting to twitch again and his fingers around the wineglass tightened their grip. Lucretia was just too tired of trying to keep herself emotionless. Warm tears were already trickling down her chin. She just let them flow out burying her head in her hands. 

”Taako I only tried to do something good. I didn’t mean to ruin anyone’s life. I only tried to do what was right!” Lucretia wept. Taako turned his eyes away.   
”Well, let’s just say you did a pretty bad job at it” elf said, almost spitting out the words from his mouth.   
”And oh, how could I forgot” Taako acted suprised with an over the top laugh.   
”You took the only fucking person that mattered to me! You took Lup”  
”I never wanted it to end like that, that was never my intention…” Lucretia tried to explain through her tears.   
”Silence!” Taako shouted. Woman raised her eyes to face Taako again. He was trembling with anger.   
”You took her away. It was not like Barry had worked his ass off to find even the smallest hint of where she could be. You could have helped us. Because of you I killed Barry! I was the one who shot him off the Starblaster. And after forgetting every little happy moment in my life, you just shoved me in to that dirtbag Sazed’s arms. Yeah it would have been nice that if you had maybe find me better life. It seems that you didn’t even try!” Taako cried out and slammed his fist to the table, spilling some wine over the edge of the glass. He took a moment to calm himself, breathing heavily and wiping the corner of his eye. Lucretia swallowed dryly when Taako finally turned his head to stare back at the crying woman with hollow look in his eyes. 

”I thought I had killed forty people. If Sazed had succeeded, I would be dead too. I still am a murderer in some eyes . Do you know how many nights I spent trying to run away from the people that wanted me dead? How many nights I spent alone crying? You took the only person that had ever cared about me away. You took everything from me” Taako calmly hissed. Lucretia opened her mouth to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out. She coughed for a moment, before she tried again. 

” What should I do? How can I make you forgive me? I know I’m a horrible person and I honestly deserve the worst, but please Taako, tell me something I can do! Please…” she was weak and tired, but it felt good to get the questions out that she had for so long kept inside her. Taako took a minute to think, swirling his almost empty wineglass in his hand.   
”Stay away from me. You remind me of everything bad that has ever happened to me” Taako said, looking Lucretia with those same hollow eyes. Lucretia turned her gaze away defeated.   
” And do you really think that everyone has just forgiven you as easy as Lup did?! No! I bet you would have loved to hear how Barry cried about how much he had missed Lup the day after the victory. He was angry at you. He is just a better actor than I am. And yeah Magnus might have forgiven you, but he was basically just a puppy. You compliment him once and he forgave you for forever. And he is dead anyway. You know why Davenport left to the sea? He wanted to get some space between you two! And who can blame him?!” Taako cried. ” Honestly… I’m not sure if I can ever forgive you. Maybe for a moment I could, but I thought we were going to die anyway and I was so concentrated in fighting the Hunger I forgot you for a moment. But after that and onward, I’m not sure if there will ever be a day that I don’t hate you”, Taako voice started to crack more and more as he went on. Luctretia saw how his mascara had started to get smudged as he wiped his eyes, trying to keep the tears of rage from flowing. Small red sparks started to appear around Taako’s right hand. Lucretia stayed quiet. There was no reason to argue with Taako. He was right. There really was no reason that Taako should forgive her. Still, she had one more question to ask. After that, she just wanted go back to home. 

 

”If…if the Hunger had not arrived at that moment, would…would you have killed me?” Lucretia wept quietly. The question caught Taako off-guard. The elf dropped the wineglass that shattered on the ground. This time Lucretia was the one that stared the other with dominance.   
”Answer me Taako.”  
Taako just stared the woman in front of him. She looked determined even if her eyes were red and full of sadness and she was trembling. Taako swallowed and quietly answered:  
”Lup would had not let me. But I guess I would have… At that moment I… I really wanted you dead.”  
There was a small moment of disbelief in Lucretia. Maybe there was still a small part of her that had wanted to believe that he really didn’t mean what he had said that night. She took a shaky breath before she continued:  
”So, why don’t you just kill me now?” Lucretia tightened her grip of the handles of the chair she was seated at. 

”What?” Taako asked in disbelief, but bit amused.   
”I know that Lup told you. I will die next month anyway. You will get your revenge, and I can die at least knowing that I tried. So if you do it, I won’t blame you” Lucretia said calmly. She looked relaxed, leaning back on her chair, with a small smile on her face. A tear dropped down Taako’s cheek. His ears were now twitching like crazy.   
”Taako. Remember. I’m the reason that your life was shit. I took Lup from you. Does it matter if I die now or during the next month? At least now one of us would get some satisfaction of it. I honestly don’t care anymore. I tried my best and it was not enough! So just fucking kill me already!” Lucretia yelled over the tears. Taako had not even noticed, how his right hand had started to conjure a spell. But Lucretia noticed. She smiled painfully and closed her eyes.   
”I forgive you” Lucretia whispered. It would be all over soon.

Taako was terrified. This was not what he had wanted. He just wanted her out of his life, but not like this. But there was still a small part of him that really wanted to do it. He had killed before, even if they were not intentional, and he could kill again. His breath started to get faster and faster as the red sparks flew all over the table.

”No!” Lup shouted, breaking the bubble and freeing the two from their restrains. She fell over Taako who was just about to release his spell, taking the hit herself. She grunted a bit when the spell hit her, but it really didn't do any damage to her immortal body. Lucretia just fell down the floor quietly crying as Barry rushed over to her. Kravitz shoved Lup out of the way and just hugged the weeping Taako tightly. The grim reaper stared at Lup with hatred in his eyes as he quickly opened the rift to their home and held Taako in his arms.   
” Don’t bother to show to work tomorrow, or I will kill you!” Kravitz hissed and stepped in to the portal. Lup watched helplessly as the rift closed.

Everything around Lup just turned to static. Barry tried his best to get Lucretia to calm down, but even his sweet words were just turned to white noise in Lup’s ears. Only thing she could feel was the broken glass under her feet, but even the numb pain didn't bother her. 

”This is not what I wanted” she quietly wept, as she herself fell down to the floor.


End file.
